Homemade baby food: simple, healthy and inexpensive

Cecilia Shand enjoys some homemade delights.

I never envisioned myself as the "make your own baby food" kind of person. After all, I'm a big fan of most things store-bought (just ask my husband, or the nice folks at Visa, Mastercard and Discover). I don't own a sewing machine, I don't drive a hybrid, and with great apologies to the many landfills we have filled at this point, I consider the disposable diaper to be one of mankind's greatest achievements. So I always just assumed that when I had babies we'd end up with those little jars and tubs of mashed whatever filling our cupboard.

But then I tasted the stuff.

I was about five months pregnant with my own first child and attending the baby shower of a good friend. We were playing one of those fun-filled shower games where you close your eyes and attempt to identify what mystery food has been mashed into the little jars and tubs. I closed my eyes, took a taste and took a guess. Corn? Chicken? Cardboard? It was awful, and it turned out to be peas.

So about two years ago when my first child was of solid food eating age, I decided to give this homemade baby food thing a try. Turned out it was easy, not terribly time consuming, and the peas tasted like...peas.

The recipe is pretty simple: Steam or roast a veggie, mash a veggie, serve a veggie. Stew a fruit, mash a fruit, serve a fruit. When it comes to the steaming, sometimes I use a bamboo basket, sometimes a rice cooker, often the microwave. On the mashing front, you can use a food mill, a food processor, an immersion blender or a regular blender. Depending on your baby's age and chewability, add some liquid (water, breast milk, formula) to achieve the desired consistency. I make large batches and freeze them in ice cube trays which can then be transferred to plastic freezer bags. No annoying little jars or tubs to deal with. See Mother Earth, I really do care about you.

As baby gets older, try some combination meals (my little girl's current favorite is lentil-carrot-sweet potato) and add some spices. I found this made for an easier transition to table food with my son, though he still went through a "grilled cheese only" phase.

I found the website wholsomebabyfood.com to be a good source for ideas, and it goes without saying you should check with your pediatrician before starting your baby on solids or if you have any concerns along the way.

And make sure the rest of the household benefits from the fruits (and veggies) of your labor. If you're roasting a big batch of sweet potatoes to puree for baby, why not slice up some sweet potato fries for the "toothy" family members? If baby's having butternut squash, throw a few of those frozen cubes into your own pot of soup or stew to boost the nutritional power. A few cubes of spinach will melt right into your pasta sauce, undetected by even the most finicky eaters. Jessica Seinfeld's book "Deceptively Delicious" has dozens of recipes for the whole family using pureed vegetables, as does "The Sneaky Chef."

So don't be afraid to give homemade baby food a try. It can be cost effective, nutritious and slightly more appetizing than cardboard.

Bon appetit, babies!

Mona Shand is a TV and radio news reporter and a mother of two. You can read more on her blog.